Whatever Comes Now
by thisisanauthor
Summary: One dies, and the other is forced to go on alone. What, then, happens when they come back?


Title: Whatever Comes Now

Author:

Pairing: FrostIron (Loki/Tony Stark)

Rating: T, may move to M in later chapters

Warnings: Deathfic with a twist, angst, violence, language.

Summary: One dies, and the other is forced to go on alone. What, then, happens when they come back?

**Author's notes: **This story is inspired by, and based on, an old fic by the author elise_maxwell, written for the FFVIII fandom, entitled 'Only In My Dreams.' I do not own either the fanfic, the Avengers, or anything in Marvel.

They were exhausted. It seemed like the past five weeks had been one endless barrage of fighting. It had been one tidal wave of enemies after another, and the Avengers were just short of drowning. Of course, the added firepower the God of Mischief provided was more than enough to keep the tides in their favor, Tony reflected with a grin. He could see him on the periphery of his HUD, a vision in black, green, and gold, with magic swirling around him as he took down another one of Dr. Doom's creations.

It had been three years since the incident with the Chitauri, and two since the Aesir had, in a wildly unprecedented move, officially joined the team. They had both held out for three months before the sexual tension reached a peak, and Tony found himself once again pinned to a window of his penthouse by the god.

After that, they became nearly inseparable. Tony spent countless hours studying the Aesir's magic in return for teaching Loki everything about his lab, and work. They fought, going a day or two without speaking until one of them found it in them to move past their damned pride and seek the other out. If their fighting was fantastic, then the make up sex was phenomenal, and Tony would gladly endure the former to have the latter. Theirs wasn't a fairy-tale romance. The storybook moments were few and far between, but neither ever doubted the other's affection. Somehow, the God of Chaos had found an anchor that kept him from falling back into the abyss, and that anchor was a man just as broken, and stubborn, and passionate, as himself.

Flash back to the present, the team had finally managed to beat back most of the Doombots and regroup. They were all dirty, exhausted, and attempting to ignore their own injuries as they made their way to the transport that would take them back to the helicarrier. All of them sported gashes and bruises as well as tears in their uniforms, and Iron Man's power was on the lowest reserve levels. The past few weeks had taken a hard toll on them, and they were so worn down that they didn't notice the last Doombot until it was nearly on top of them. One moment they were exchanging barbs about the mission, the next they were scrambling to disperse the mechanical creature as it barreled its way towards them.

The suit's reserve power drained just as the Doombot came down on them, firing the last of its missiles straight towards them. The first two sailed over them, crashing into the pavement. The third slammed into the side of of building, and they heard a sickening crack as the support rods buckled under the sudden immense strain. The Hulk viciously ripped the machine apart like paper, but it was too late. The building was coming down, and they were right in the middle of its path. Steve would later curse himself for not being more attentive to his team, Thor would blame himself for not being faster - stronger, and Tony would rage at himself for not improving the goddamned power system to his suit while he had the chance.

It all happened too fast. One moment Tony was reaching for the manual release on the suit in a last-ditch effort to escape the plummeting hail of concrete and steel, then next he was lying on the ground well out the way, his armor half off and a strange tingling feeling coursing through his body. "What the he-" And then he knew. His Trickster had been fully drained after the fighting, had barely been able to follow the group back to the transport. In a moment of sheer desperation, he had done the only thing he could to save the man he had come to care for so dearly. Using the last whispers of magic left in his grasp, he had teleported the billionaire out of the range of the building, sacrificing his own chance of escape. The team watched in horror as Loki collapsed, completely spent, while the full weight of the building's side crashed down on top of him.

It took the team, fully assisted by S.H.I.E.L.D. emergency crews, an hour to break through the rubble and find him. When they did... The sight hit Tony like a wrecking ball to the chest. The tangled wreck on the ground wasn't moving. He approached slowly, nearly tripping on the remains of what had been the west side of the Melrose Hotel. He crouched down, gingerly pushing the last bit of concrete off of his lover's body."Come on Reindeer Games, open your eyes," he pleaded, cradling the Aesir against his chest. Loki chuckled darkly, little flecks of blood spraying against Tony's chest when it turned into a violent cough.

"Stark-" Tony was ignoring him, looking around frantically for the medical transport as he kept talking. "You have to hang in there until we can get the medical crew down here. You have to-"

"Stark!" "What!?"

"There is nothing your Midgardian medicines can do for me now." His voice was so faint, Tony had to strain to hear it over the roar of the medical helicopter overhead.

"Don't say that. Don't fucking say that." Where the hell was the medical team?

"Anthony?" So quiet, barely a whisper. "I may not always show it, but never doubt that I have loved you." He had held on as long as he could just to tell his lover the one thing he had never had the courage to say. Tony caught his lips one last time before Loki gave a final shuddering cough, and was still. Tony was numb with shock as he felt the life slip away. The paramedics rushed over, arriving just moments too late. There was nothing they could do. He was gone. The team was suddenly around him, everything happening at once as the paramedics attempted to pry the body from his arms and the team tried to talk to him.

It was too much.

Cradling the body of the sorcerer that had somehow become the love of his life, Tony threw back his head, and screamed.


End file.
